August Income – $2270.85

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Here is a breakdown of my income for August.

Online Income

 $424.61
Craigslist

$84.45
Interest

$5.33
Account Bonuses

$220

Cash Back

$22.85
Mystery Shop

$8

Amazon FBA

 $68.26
Medical Study $200
Jobs $1237.35

Total

$2270.85

My income was pretty good in August.  Although I only worked the first couple of days in August I received a couple of paychecks so I still had decent income from the job.

I kept better track of my Amazon FBA income during August so I can give an exact figure there.  My main motivation for doing Amazon FBA was to earn a Southwest Companion pass through using the Rapid Rewards shopping portal.  I should have my companion pass at the end of the month so I’ll probably cut back on Amazon FBA.  I wasn’t doing a big volume anyway so cutting back won’t make much difference.

I received some bonus income from the Motif  referral bonus and the Betterment referral bonus.  If you want to sign up through one of my referral links they are in the sidebar. If you want more information on either of the bonuses feel free to email me or leave a comment. I’m going to try to make more money from these referral bonuses.  I like them because they make me money and make money for my readers as well.

My cashback income stayed about the same. If you haven’t joined Mr. Rebates yet you can get a $5 bonus for signing up through my referral link and I’ll make a little money for referring you as well.
Mr. Rebates

This month is the last month of my medical study.  I’ll be getting a larger check this month than last which should help my overall income for the month.  Without any job income I’ll probably make less in September.  I do plan to ramp up selling stuff on Craigslist and Ebay so that might offset some of the loss of job income.

 

 

August Expenses – $1194.15

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Here is a breakdown of my expenses for August.

Household $410.23
Entertainment

$194.90

Transportation

 $115.23

Food

$119.67
Student Loan

$106.00
Phone

$26.81
Health

$221.31

Total

 $1194.15

 

My August expenses almost got down to my target level of $1000.  I had a dental appointment which cost $165 which caused part of the overage. My entertainment expense was the only category that was way too high.  I spent $40 on a $50 movie gift card which will be used mainly this month and I put some more money into fixing my bike which resulted in the high entertainment expense.  All of my other expense categories were okay.  This month I am having some oral surgery so my expenses will be way up. I will probably also have some travel expense. Everything else should remain about the same.

Being a Movie Extra

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After my recent post on my movie scene with Reese Witherspoon I received a couple of questions about being a movie extra and I have received similar questions in the past when I wrote about being an extra. I thought I had written a post about the process of being a movie extra here before, but it turns out the post I was remembering was a short post on Bank Bonuses that I wrote way back in 2006. That post didn’t have a lot of information and I know a little bit more about being an extra now so I’m writing this post to answer people’s questions on this subject.

How to Get a Job as an Extra

The most common question about being an extra is how to get a job as an extra. For my first two extra jobs were when I lived in Austin where they usually have a couple of movies or so shoot there each year. For both jobs there was an article in the local paper about a casting call for the movies. They want you to show up to the casting call with a head shot. You don’t need to get a professional headshot, you can just take one yourself. The casting employees aren’t too worried about the quality of the photo, they just want to have a clear idea of what you look like. After filling out a short application I then waited several months before I was contacted to work on the movie. My most recent job I responded to a post on the extra companies Facebook page stating that they needed extras for the next week. I found this company by doing a Swagbucks search for “extra casting” in Atlanta. Note that when you do an internet search for extra casting a lot of the results will be scams. The scams are mostly obvious, but remember you should never have to pay to work with an extra casting company. Also, I was lucky to get the last job since I didn’t live in the Atlanta area. Most extra companies only want to deal with locals since they might need you to work on the spur of the moment or the job might be canceled at the last minute.

How Long Does an Extra Job Last?

The length of the extra job will vary. My first extra job lasted a couple of weeks with weekends and a couple of random days off. My second extra job was only for one day and my last one was for seven days over a week and a half period. When you’re hired for a job they should tell you about how many days it will be, but you will need to be flexible.

Typical Day of Being an Extra

Being an extra is a pretty easy albeit somewhat boring job. Most of the day is spent in an extra holding area. This is an area away from the set where you wait until a PA comes to take you to the set for the scene. I spent most of my time in the holding area talking to other extras and reading books on my Kindle. The typical day lasts from ten to sixteen hours. These are long days, but since you are mostly just sitting around they aren’t that bad. When you are called to the set you will be given further instructions on what to do. A couple of general rules are to not bring your cell phone to the set and to not bother the actors or crew. Since the days are so long you will be given a meal at some point and they usually have snacks and drinks available throughout the day as well. The quality of the food and beverage varies by the job. The food is usually okay but not great. On one occasion when there were just a few extras working we got to eat with the cast and crew and their food was much better.

How Much Does Being an Extra Pay?

Being an extra does not pay much. My pay on the jobs I’ve done was always just a little bit above minimum wage. On the plus side, you do get overtime when you work over eight hours and you almost always work over eight hours. The overtime and the long days make the paycheck a little better despite the low wage, but being an extra isn’t a lucrative job. I think it is worth it since the work is easy and if you are lucky you might get to see yourself on the big screen with a movie star.

My Movie Scene with Reese Witherspoon

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If you have been reading this blog for a while you might remember a post I wrote back in 2012 about being an extra in the movie, “Devil’s Knot” and meeting Reese Witherspoon.  I’m not very good at tooting my own horn because the movie finally came out in May of this year and I’m just now getting around to writing about the release of the movie.  I also thought I had previously written a post on how to get a job as a movie extra, but I can’t find such a post.  I’ll be writing a post on that topic soon.

When the movie finally came out I was pleased to see that I had some camera time. Although, I was right next to Reese Witherspoon in a couple of scenes I still wasn’t sure if I’d be viewable in the movie.  The scenes I was in could have been cut from the movie or cropped so that I wasn’t in the scene or I could have just been so far in the background or the scene shown so quickly that you could barely recognize me. As you can see from the photo in this post I got lucky and have a scene that basically features just me and Reese on the entire screen.  I’ve been an extra in a couple of movies before so I know it isn’t usual to get a scene where you are seen with the star.  In the other movies I worked as an extra on I was either totally unseen or only visible for a brief moment in the background so I’m pretty happy that I had such a highly visible scene in this movie.

If you want to check out the movie it is on Netflix right now.  I used my phone to take a picture of the movie playing on Netflix on our TV for this post.  My most visible scene is at about 1:21 into the movie where I can be viewed sitting in the courtroom next to Reese Witherspoon and then standing by her in the hallway a short time later. I’ve also been able to spot myself in the background a few other places in the movie, but I doubt anyone who doesn’t personally know me would be able to spot me in any of those scenes.  The movie is a dramatization of the trial of the West Memphis 3.  If you aren’t already aware of this case it is a pretty interesting story.

Weight Loss Bet – Four Month Update

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Four months have passed in my six month bet to lose thirty pounds. The bet will pay me $3600 if I manage to lose the weight ($3000 of the amount is my own money being returned to me) and if I don’t manage to lose the weight I’ll be out $3000. The idea behind the bet is that the prospect of losing $3000 will motivate me to lose the weight.

My starting weight was 226 pounds so I need to get down to 196 pounds to win the bet. Last month I weighed 211.4 pounds so I had lost basically half of the weight I need to lose. This month I weighed 210 pounds. It is good that I lost weight, but I need to lose weight much more rapidly if I am going to win this bet. I still have fourteen pounds to lose in two months. Losing seven pounds a month will not be easy. I’d like to have a little safety margin so it would be better if I could lose eight pounds each month.

Despite the slow weight loss after the first month I still feel that I can lose all the weight. This past week I did great at exercising and eating better and lost four pounds. I just need to continue doing that and I will win the bet. Taking the necessary steps to lose the remaining weight isn’t that hard, but it isn’t easy either. When I’m tempted to skip my exercise or eat junk food I just have to remind myself that I have $3000 on the line. Momentary pleasure is not worth losing $3000. I’ll have another update at the end of this month. I hope to report that I have lost the entire thirty pounds or close to it.